Russia protests Lithuania’s removal of Soviet soldiers’ remains in Šiauliai

Russia has formally protested Lithuania’s decision to relocate the remains of around 50 Soviet soldiers from a burial site in central Šiauliai, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a “strict protest” with Lithuania’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Jolanta Tubaitė, over the planned exhumation. In response, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations, stating that the remains would be “respectfully reburied” in the city’s military cemetery in full compliance with international law.

Lithuania’s Desovietization Commission ruled in 2024 that the burial site near Šiauliai Cathedral violated national laws prohibiting the glorification of totalitarian regimes. The Foreign Ministry emphasized that the relocation follows the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other legal requirements, noting that Russia’s embassy in Vilnius had been officially notified of the exhumation plans last November.

A ministry statement also underscored the historical context, noting that the Soviet Union’s role in World War II—often framed by Moscow as liberation—was, for Lithuania, a transition from Nazi to Soviet occupation. “The war’s end in 1945 did not bring freedom to Lithuania,” the statement read, highlighting the deaths and displacements caused by both regimes.